Executives at second L.A. County youth home are accused of embezzlement

Prosecutors have charged two executives of a Los Angeles County group home for youth in the juvenile delinquency system and foster care with misuse of public funds, embezzlement and filing false tax returns.

The charges against Gary O’Neil Batchelor and Steven Bryan Smith, the financial officer and executive director, respectively, of Moore’s Cottage, mark the second time in a year that the district attorney’s office has alleged criminal wrongdoing within the multimillion dollar industry that county officials entrust with the care of some of Southern California’s most vulnerable youth.

As in the district attorney’s recent case against leaders of the Little People’s World group home, the alleged wrongdoing at Moore’s Cottage may have festered for years as county officials ignored signs of financial mismanagement, records show.

The two men, who pleaded not guilty and are free on bail, declined to respond to requests for comment.

They are accused of embezzling more than $100,000 from the charity and damaging or destroying property in excess of $65,000. The lawsuit also accuses them of filing false personal tax returns in 2011, 2012 and 2013 — the same period in which they failed to file tax forms for Moore’s Cottage. In total, Moore’s Cottage owed $460,000 in delinquent federal payroll taxes as of September 2013.

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